As a guitarist William Kanengiser has achieved success on multiple fronts: he has appeared as recitalist and soloist at major concert venues throughout the U.S. (including Carnegie Hall) and across the globe and has regularly toured as a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet since 1980. In addition, Kanengiser regularly appears in chamber music concerts with an array of artists, including pianist Mia Chung, violinist Maria Bachmann, the Vermeer Quartet, Miami String Quartet, and many others. As a composer Kanengiser has produced several popular works such as Turn to the Sea, for four guitars; and as an arranger he has turned out guitar renditions of pieces by Handel, Bizet (Carmen Suite), Gottschalk, Kabalevsky, Liszt, and Mozart, whose Rondo alla Turca was used in Kanengiser's arrangement for the 1986 film Crossroads, wherein Kanengiser ghost-played for actor Ralph Macchio. Kanengiser also hosted a radio show for two years in the mid-'90s on the Los Angeles-based KKGO-FM. If this weren't enough, the indefatigable Kanengiser has taught guitar at the USC Thornton School of Music since 1983 and has regularly conducted master classes in guitar performance at numerous venues across the globe. Kanengiser has appeared on many recordings with the LAGQ on such labels as DG, Delos, Sony, and Telarc, and his solo recordings, many of which contain crossover and popular ethnic music, are available from GSP. William Kanengiser was born in Orange, NJ, on July 22, 1959. He studied music at the USC (later Thornton) School of Music. His most important teachers were Pepe Romero, Malcolm Hamilton, and James F. Smith. At USC Kanengiser became a founding member of the LAGQ in 1980. Kanengiser soon won a string of competitions, including Toronto (1981), Paris (1983), and the 1987 Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York. By the early '90s Kanengiser was internationally known, not least because of the parallel success of the LAGQ, whose first recording, on the GHA label, containing works by Stravinsky, Holst, and others, was issued in 1993. Kanengiser's own first recording, Rondo alla Turka, on GSP, appeared in 2000. Several more followed, including Echoes of the Old World, a collection that included Six Balkan Miniatures by Dusan Bogdanovic, a work specifically written for Kanengiser. In the new century Kanengiser has remained active as a soloist, LAGQ member, chamber player, recitalist, and teacher. His later recordings include the 2006 concert/educational DVD Classical Guitar and Beyond, on Mel Bay Records.